


The Chosen Ones

by ProwlingThunder



Category: Ronin Warriors
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Japanese Wolves, Psychic Bond, Psychic Tiger, Psychic Wolves, Psychic Wolves For Lupercalia, Tiger Bonds, Wolf Bonds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 16:30:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17790848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: "You are right to be afraid of us. But you need not fear us. Wolves are not domestic pets. Neither are samurai your average peacekeeper. We are not safe. We are swords to be drawn and set against the enemy, and the enemy is never a civilian."





	The Chosen Ones

It was the strangest thing to see, a wolf-lord in Japan. Mia had known some of the old families kept their wolf-packs safe, when the wild populations dwindled. But none of the clans in question lived in Toyama, and she'd never expected to see them. Mia had come out for the boy and his tiger, for the weather patterns, for her  _ Grandfather _ .. and she'd stayed because.... well. Because the soldier hadn't let her or the boy go, for one. But after?

The tiger. The  _ wolves. _

She'd never seen anything like them before. Not up close, not without the safety of zoo fences and walls, and now they're prowling back and forth in an agitated circle around the seven of them.

The scholar and historian in her wondered about how it worked, the Wolfbond with the old houses. There wasn't a lot of lore on the subject, but she could do a good deal of extrapolating based on foreigners.  _ They _ had published a lot of material on the subject, from the experience of bonding to the.. ah. Procreation of the species. Mia hadn't read as much of it as she suddenly would have liked to, but she knew enough not to run screaming like a child.

Which wasn't fair  _ to _ the child, who was wandering up to the sleek, small  _ Honshu _ wolf she had seen come in with Torrent. Wildfire's tiger prowled nearby, not unaffected, but not overly worried. He would glance over at Yulie every so often, but seemed content enough to not worry about him.

Torrent's wolf was  _ small.  _ Barely more than a foot tall at the shoulders, grey and nearly fox-like. She-- for both Torrent and Halo had swept in with sisters-- was gray, dark and sleek like the crash of the ocean's depths, little flecks of white gracing her features elegantly. She stopped her trek and watched his approach, one ear flipped back, unsure... but she leaned her nose out to his fingers, sniffing gingerly. Yulie stared at her, in the same sort of wide-eyed innocence he stared at Wildfire's tiger, and then Torrent shifted his attention from his discussion with Hardrock and Wildfire to smile at the pair.

"Arashinoumi."

Yulie's head snapped his way. "Huh?"

"That's her name. Arashinoumi."

_ Stormy waters, _ Mia noted. Like white-water rapids, or seafoam.

"Arashinoumi.." Yulie blinked again, glancing down at her. She sat primly in front of him, dark eyes looking up at him patiently. He stretched his fingers out, careful, aware enough that she wasn't a house pet or a tame dog. "Can I pet her?"

"She's waiting for your name," Torrent gentled. "She says you can pet her after."

"My name's Yulie," He offered, and the wolf in front of him-- tiny and delicate and a page out of history-- stretched herself up to rub her head against his palm. He giggled, delighted, and settled on the ground to get a better vantage on her, stroking both hands down her shoulders and sides. She stretched out on his lap, relaxing into the contact, though her head lay on his knee and her eyes continued to watch their surroundings.

Mia saw Hardrock's male stop and look at them briefly, perhaps wondering if he could get some attention as well. He was the hairiest of all three, scruffy and long-haired, though not the largest; that distinction belonged to Halo's sun-colored female, half a foot taller at the shoulders. Compared to the two and a half male and three feet female, Arashinoumi was a puppy.

The female walked nearby her brother, who leaned against a vehicle in the parking structure they were all holed up in. Mia thought for sure she had heard him speak, briefly-- but maybe she had imagined it. He was fair-haired and warm-skinned, wrapped in green and ivory subarmor, and Mia could  _ understand _ why he was over there away from them, after the start the young Lord Strata had undergone.

And by start, Mia meant there had been a bristling snarl of _foreigner_ , a hot-flash of anger. That's what the rest of them were trying to untangle now.

Mia didn't have much to do with herself besides wait, and watch. The chains of the soldier's weapon had bruised her flesh, and she felt stiff and sore, and tired from the loss of adrenaline in her blood. Hardrock's dirt-brown brother and Wildfire's tiger stretched their paths out to cover Arashinoumi's side of the formation, meeting in the middle. Halo's sister did not adjust her course, and Mia was no judge of a wolf's walk to determine its mood. But unlike the rest, who kept their attention roving, checking on their brothers and the civilians, the wolf-sister kept her gaze pointedly outside the circle.

The scholar considered the troopers again. They were young enough; late teens, if she were to guess. Old enough by the old ways to be adults. Too young, far too young, to be anything but children in the new. She was only nineteen herself, and still had to live with her grandfather due to law and custom. She wasn't sure any of these boys were old enough to be out of school yet, though they seemed to have one another well in hand.

Yulie, likewise, had Arashinoumi's attention, and Mia judged him to be safe enough as long as the wolves and lone tiger were keeping watch.

Halo and his sister did not turn at her approach, though Mia could tell by the set of his shoulders how tense he was, how much he wanted to. She imagined they could still hear everything being said over with the rest of the warriors. If wolves were anything like dogs-- and children's science books said they  _ were-- _ then their hearing was quite good. Just because the other four were out of her hearing range meant precious little.

She stopped just outside arm's reach, permitting him more than enough personal space. He seemed like the sort who might enjoy that. Then, she recalled Torrent's words to Yulie, the only one of the collection who she had the luxury of knowing the name of. She suspected when they got Strata calmed down, there may very well be a proper introduction, but in the meantime, it was unkind to ask Halo to stand out here alone, like some unwelcome guest.

The unwelcome guest was invading the city, after all.

"I'm Koji Mia," she offered. "I help my grandfather do research into ancient myths and legends, and sometimes I'm his teaching assistant at the college." It was possibly, probably, too much information. But it couldn't be helped now, because she'd already said it.

The blond considered her for a moment out of the corner of one violet eye. Mia remembered enough old legends and superstitions about the color to feel momentarily uncomfortable, and then incredibly foolish. He seemed not to notice. "Date Shukijo. My sister, Myoujou."

The Morning Star. Venus. Worse, she knew his family name. The Date were one of the old Samurai families, and still practiced swordsmanship as if the country were still embroiled in civil war. She had  _ heard _ that the city of Sendai still belonged to them, and that they had managed to save a few wild packs on their land, which was extensive enough that their bonded siblings could run and hunt without risk. A good number of police officers here in Toyama were Date, and all of them had come into the force from Sendai, with wolves at their side.

It was a practice that had truly  _ started _ during the wars, she thought. That was what the legend said. When the Wolf Demon had been felled by sparrow and bamboo, and so cast a curse on his hunters to share blood with wolves themselves. And while there was no proof of who or what the Wolf Demon was, or when he or she existed, it certainly was the sort of thing to fit in that era. It had been rife with fables like that.

Everyone in Toyama knew you couldn't lie to a Sendai officer, wolf or human. They could  _ tell. _

Torrent may well be the one whose virtue was Trust. And Mia knew that would likely be a larger measure somehow, with mystical armors in the mix, and therefor ancient magic. But  _ lying _ would be fundamentally difficult around any wolf, if they could sense it like dogs could sense distress. If they could taste it in the air.

Mia had no plans of lying to him. Or any of them.

Yulie, on the other hand.. He was young. She might have to.

"She's really beautiful," she offered, careful. She was, of course. If huge and several times Mia's weight. She was glad Myoujou was staying over there on her path, but she didn't delude herself into thinking either of them were not  _ sure _ of her fears already,.

No reason to hide the fact when they could smell pheromones.

"You are afraid of us." Not a question. Just a statement. Mia wasn't sure what she had expected, to be honest. At least the blond teenager wasn't looking at her now. He'd turned his violet gaze to the perimeter, granting her privacy.

Mia looked at the perimeter herself, while Myoujou continued her steady walk. She didn't have anything that she could say back to him. She could try to deny it, which meant that she would have to lie; he was a Date, though, and that was simply not an option. Nor was admitting it outright.

At least she did not feel a compulsion to tell him the truth, as she had when Torrent had asked her how bad her injuries were. She could take comfort in the fact that she hadn't broken anything, but honestly, as much as the Youjikai soldier had thrown her around, she was amazed by that fact more than relieved. She and Yulie had come out of the encounter scratched, bruised, and perhaps a little traumatized, but they had come out  _ whole. _ And alive, which was somewhat stranger.

She was sure, though, that she was somewhat less scared of the samurai and their wolves, plus the tiger, than she had been being flung through the air, unable to control who hit a given surface first and desperately wishing it had been  _ just her _ and not a child..

"Koji-san," Date said at length, shifting a bit at his post. Mia resisted the urge to turn around and look at the others; at Yulie, at Torrent and Hardrock and Wildfire and Strata. Because he  _ hadn't _ shifted because of her. There was no way it could be laid at her feet. Which meant that he had  _ heard something, _ something beyond her perceptions. Something that only Myoujou could hear. "You are right to be afraid of us. But you need not fear us. Wolves are not domestic pets. Neither are samurai your average peacekeeper. We are not safe. We are swords to be drawn and set against the enemy, and the enemy is never a civilian."

For a long moment, Mia  _ could _ say nothing. The words struck like a blow, and she couldn't think around them. From a member of the  _ Date,  _ they said  _ so many things. _

It was not an offer for protection, exactly. She was a civilian in a warzone, and there were so few samurai fighting the invasion. He  _ could not  _ say that he would protect her. He was a Date, and the family was known in the past to remove caustic elements with lethal force. And it was worse, that she didn't think any of the others were of members of his clan. If they had, he would not be over here, alone and segregated, cooling his heels.

The Date had allied with so many others during the Unification of Japan, but that had been lifetimes ago. She did not know, and somewhat doubted, that he had any agreements with any of them. Hardrock, she hated to admit it, was unlikely to be of any of the old families. Strata did not have the tact for it. Torrent held a grace and elegance Mia could only associate with the clans. And Wildfire...

Wildfire was at the young man's defense, and what little she had heard him speak to Strata was not as diplomatic as Torrent's. But Mia could see how it could be, with a little more time and practice. He certainly had the air of authority about him.

But all of it meant that he could not promise her she would be safe. He could not ensure it.

And moreover, she was only safe if she were a  _ civilian. _ If she ever decided to shake the title, she shook off the capability to be registered as  _ not a threat.  _ She became either  _ brother in arms  _ or  _ an enemy. _

Enemies of the Date family usually did not survive long. 

That was something that history had proven time and time again, and Mia did not feel particularly like being a statistic.

"The others are finished with their conversation," the Date samurai added, and she knew it was purely for her benefit.

Reluctantly, she turned away from him to look at the others and saw the group breaking up. Torrent was moving away entirely, heading to his sister and Yulie where they were on the ground. Arashinoumi had not yet deigned to stand up from the boy's lap, lavishing in the attention that he provided her. Hardrock's wolf and Wildfire's tiger were still pacing the perimeter, but it seemed more purposeful now than it had before. More.. intent to move, as opposed to intent to defend.

Wildfire himself turned to her and smiled, waving an arm in encouragement. She stepped forward, and a few paces later heard the tale-tell sound of Halo's armored feet on concrete.  _ Protecting the civilian, _ most likely. She was almost flattered by it.

..except that from behind was an excellent location to stab someone in the back.

Strata wouldn't look at her when she approached. He kept his eyes cast away. She had no idea how to feel about that.

"Is everything okay?"

Wildfire cocked his head to the side. "We worked it out. We need to get moving though, we've stayed here too long. How are you feeling?"

"Still a little sore," she admitted, touching her ribs carefully. It didn't matter that Wildfire was younger than she was; tell a grown samurai  _ I'm fine _ when he knew she was lying? Date's words were still too fresh in her mind to even consider risking it. "But I'm okay. Yulie--?"

"Whiteblaze will carry him," Wildfire.. didn't even suggest it. It was just there, a done deal, no argument need be brooked. She blinked at him. "I just need to know if you can handle a march."

"For a while?" she offered, brow furrowing. "I mean, I'm no track star or anything.. I'm probably not capable of going as long as the five of you are, but I can keep pace for a little bit."

"That'll do."

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I started a chapter two of this.... If I finish it, I'll come back and upload it.


End file.
